Friday, August 24, 2012

THE ODD LIFE OF TIMOTHY GREEN



 Fantasy drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Jennifer Garner: Cindy Green, tour guide
Joel Edgerton: her husband Jim, plant employee
Shohreh Aghdashloo: Ms. Onat of the U.S. Adoption Services
Dianne Wiest: Cindy’s boss Bernice Crudstaff
CJ Adams: 9-year-old Timothy
Emmet Walsh: Cindy’s Uncle Bub
Lois Smith: Cindy’s Aunt Mel
David Morse: Jim’s father James
Rosemarie DeWitt: Cindy’s sister Brenda
Odeya Rush: a young girl
Ron Livingstone: Jim’s boss, Bernice’s oldest son Franklin 

REVIEW
Promoted as a Disney film, one movie-goer was heard to say “Walt Disney would turn over in his grave if he saw this one”. Unlike the great classic movies such as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, this one straddles the line between fantasy and reality. That’s a poor mix: it’s got to be either/or to make for a story we can buy into. So this one leaves me detached, just an observer thinking “why did they spend all that money to wind up with this?”

Another thing: three quarters of the people we get to see are either odd (the young girl Timmy meets once in a while) or nasty unpleasant folk (Bernice, grandpa James, Brenda, Franklin to name but a few) so it’s a pleasure to see them disappear from the screen with every scene change.

I should have walked out but I thought “maybe it will get better?” It never did.

CLASSIFICATION
 for mild thematic elements and brief language.

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